Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Small Work Takes Big Prize

A
small work submitted by Frances Stachl
of Whanganui took the Best in Show prize of $700 at the 2013 Whanganui
National Art Exhibition and Awards at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre on
Thursday.

The
exhibition and awards are presented by the Whanganui National Art Exhibition
and Award Trust. The annual exhibition is open to artists living and working in
New Zealand, and is in its fifth year.

The
judges for this year’s awards were Esther Topfer, trustee and a Whanganui
printmaker, Sarah Williams, a Whanganui painter and gallery manager, and
Mikaere Gardiner, a painter, from Taumarunui.

They
selected Ms Stachl’s work, The Baby and
the Bathwater, for its rendering of something insignificant such as a
bathplug and the layering of perceptions and concepts by use of materials and
elaborate production. Made from sterling silver, deer antler, and beef bone, The Baby and the Bathwater work has been
well received by viewers to the exhibition.

Certificates
of Merit prizes of $100 were
awarded to Becka-Lee Biggs of Whanganui for her digital print Humble Bee, and to previous Merit
winner, Andria Pablo of Wellington, for her large work Tonatiuh Ra, comprisingof
Aztec iconography made from beads, drawing together her cultural heritages of New
Zealand and Mexico.

There
were a total of 43 works submitted
by artists from Whanganui, Hawke’s Bay, the Kapiti Coast, Manawatu,
Marlborough, Rangitikei, Tararua, and Wellington. The competition is
designed to create a national platform for visual artists in painting,
printmaking, photography, glass production, sculpture and mixed media, and to
build relationships between the national arts sector and the Whanganui arts
community.

The
exhibition is open at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre till September 6. The
2013 Whanganui National Art Exhibition and Awards
is supported by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios, Mickey’s Superliquor, and the Grand Hotel.